Advanced Optical Disc (AOD) format proposed by Toshiba and NEC has been approved as standard for next-generation HD-DVD by 212-member DVD Forum. In establishing AOD as standard, Forum signaled abandonment of efforts to merge Toshiba-NEC technology with Blu-ray Disc format being developed by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Thomson.
Voters in 9 states determined Tues. who would fill 17 state commission seats. Incumbent commissioners had tough time in voting, with unofficial results showing 4 of 9 incumbents lost their bids for another term. Meanwhile, elections for 2 commission seats in Ariz. ended in cliff- hangers with outcomes that could change once absentee ballots and delayed votes from remote precincts were counted. States electing commissioners were Ariz., Ga., La., Mont., Neb., N.D., N.M., Okla., S.D.
WorldCom landed contract with the Dept. of Veteran Affairs (VA) to provide phone service at more than 175 VA facilities in U.S. and P.R., despite calls by consumer and union groups to declare bankrupt company ineligible for federal contracts. CWA and others have urged General Services Administration to block WorldCom from bidding on federal procurement opportunities, citing company’s admission of accounting fraud and impact of that investigation on investors. Terms of VA contract weren’t disclosed.
Philips will start production of liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS) microdisplay panels at Bodlengen, Germany, factory late next year in sign that it will continue to pursue technology despite breakup of components group that once supervised such operations, LCoS Projects Sales & Mktg. Dir. Guido Voltolina said.
Before FCC rules on proposed merger of AT&T Broadband and Comcast, it will decide whether pending motion by Media Access Project (MAP) to force Commission to examine Internet access agreement with AOL Time Warner has merit, Comr. Abernathy told reporters Mon. She said Commission was unlikely to release both orders together and that MAP’s motion would be dealt with first, probably in next few days. Tues. will mark Day 180 of merger review, which was Commission’s self-imposed target for deciding on deal. It appeared from her comments that Commission probably would miss that target, but Abernathy said she expected ruling on merger “soon… I would hope it could come out this week, but stay tuned.” She declined to discuss whether she or other commissioners already had voted or merger’s status. Sources have told us that staff of Media Bureau had recommended that commissioners approve merger (CD Oct 30 p2).
Reporting his company’s financial results for 2nd quarter ended Sept. 30, TDK Mediactive (TDKM) CEO Vincent Bitetti said Nintendo faced challenges in growing its Game Boy Advance (GBA) sales in 2003. He also echoed comments by Electronic Arts (EA) and THQ executives last week when he said overall videogame hardware sales growth would be “strong” but would fall “below earlier projections.” Bitetti said he agreed with EA’s forecast that PlayStation 2 (PS2) would see 25-30% growth in 2003 and GameCube and Xbox each 20-25%. European gain should exceed U.S., he said, largely because next-generation console systems were introduced in N. America first.
FCC Wireless and International bureaus granted applications of Comsat and Intelsat to assign common carrier and non-common carrier earth station licenses, private land mobile radio (PLMR) licenses and international Sec. 214 authorizations to Intelsat from Comsat. Bureaus also granted Comsat’s request to modify regulatory status of common carrier earth station licenses to dual-use common carrier and non-common carrier licenses. Bureaus said relevant product markets -- international switched voice, private line, video and earth station services -- were competitive with exception of international switched voice and private line services on “thin” routes. Intelsat’s privatization and transformation into strong commercial entity licensed in U.S. has been national policy goal, Bureaus said, and assignment of Comsat’s licenses and authorizations to Intelsat would accelerate transformation of Intelsat companies into commercial entities equal to competitive providers of international transmission service capacity. They said there were “no significant competitive concerns” because: (1) Several other companies were offering international capacity for provision of switched voice, private line, video and earth station services to customers in U.S. (2) Intelsat companies wouldn’t have market power in those product markets on thick routes. (3) Terms of Comsat Alternative Rate Regulation Order would constrain market power in providing capacity for switched voice and private line services on thin routes. However, FCC Comr. Copps said: “The benefits of a transaction with high foreign government ownership must be significant enough to overcome the potential harm to competition for the transaction to be in the public interest. The Bureau has not made that showing yet.” He said Intelsat was “substantially” owned by foreign govts., which controlled 30% of company, and “foreign-government control represents a serious potential threat to U.S. consumers and to competition.” Copps said Commission should understand “the critical difference between the market-distorting potential of government ownership and the market-enhancing potential of private ownership… This Commission should be promoting free trade and protecting U.S. consumers. It has not done this today.”
New cellphone and service from Microsoft and U.K. mobile telco Orange can double as portable CE entertainment device -- but one that might not be welcome on aircraft. Orange SPV Smartphone that will make U.K. debut next month at ?180 ($279) is made by Taiwan’s High Tech Computer, maker of Compaq’s iPAQ. Similar models are coming from Samsung and Sendo. SPV acronym stands for Sound, Picture and Video.
Zoning challenges that remain for wireless tower build- outs include complying in some cases with local rules that limit structures to heights that may not be tall enough to meet colocation mandates, panelists said at PCIA zoning conference Wed. Some communities have policy that requires new towers to accommodate colocation but “require towers to be less than 80 feet in height,” PCIA Pres. Jay Kitchen said at one-day conference in Alexandria, Va. “At a minimum, that means the colocation opportunity is limited to one other carrier.” In other cases, zoning rules don’t address trend of tower companies’ focusing less on building new sites and more on redeveloping existing inventory that can predate local laws, said Liz Hill, corporate assoc. counsel, zoning, for American Tower. In yet other cases, federal siting issues are playing increasing role in local zoning arena, experts said.
Wireless carriers, rural telcos, Bell companies and IXCs disagreed in latest round of comments at FCC on how intercarrier compensation should apply to certain kinds of wireless traffic. Commission requested comment on 2 petitions, one involving compensation for termination of wireless traffic by ILEC and other compensation for transit of traffic between IXC and wireless operator.